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rosiehunterwolf · 3 years

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Never Put Off Until Tomorrow

Prompts: Chores and Video Games

Word Count: 4,850

Characters: The squad + Pixal

Timeline: between seasons 11 and 12

Trigger Warnings: None

Summary: …what can be done today, yada, yada, yada, we all know the saying. So do the ninja- when Master Wu is drilling it into their heads every minute of every day, it’s kind of hard to forget.

Naturally, it only takes them a week (and the biggest new video game in Ninjago) to do so.

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“Get that gun out of his hand! Without it, he’ll be defenseless and we can take him down easily!” “I’m trying, Jay!” Lloyd said through gritted teeth. “One wrong move and he’ll get me with that thing!”

“Use your powers!” Jay raised his sword and dove at the enemy, forcing him to turn and face him. As their swords clashed with a loud clang of metal, Jay quickly pulled back as Lloyd shot a blast of power at the attacker, who promptly collapsed to the ground.

“Alright! Way to go, green ma- look out!”

Lloyd shrieked as someone suddenly jumped on him from behind, skewering a sword through his skull. The green ninja fell to the ground and vanished in a puff of smoke.

The ninja blinked at the scene before them, speechless.

Jay suddenly let out a whoop, leaning over to high-five Kai. “Way to go, bro! You’re so good at this game!” “He came out of nowhere,” Lloyd huffed, tossing his control to the ground. “He didn’t even give me a chance to fight back.”

Kai reclined, putting his hands behind his head. “Work smarter, not harder, green machine.”

Lloyd scowled, and Nya shot him a sympathetic glance. “Hey, Lloyd, you lasted a whole ten minutes longer than last time! You’ve drastically improved.”

“Don’t feel bad,” Kai winked. “Even Jay couldn’t beat me, I wouldn’t expect you to.”

Cole shook his head. “Dude, you’re unchecked! We’ve only had this game for a week and already, you’re insane. Let’s just say I’m very glad you’re on our team.”

“I’ll say,” Zane agreed. “The Critical Conquest Gaming Tournament is going to have some of the best gamers in Ninjago. You’re good, Kai- we all are- but we all need to be at the top of our game if we want a chance at winning.”

“We got this, guys,” Nya assured. “We’ve fought off serpentine, ghosts, the Overlord, Oni- winning a city-wide video game tournament should be a piece of cake.”

“Speaking of cake-”

“No cake,” Jay snapped at Cole. “Not until we’ve won this thing. I need you to practice.”

“Dude, chill, I’ve been practicing!”

“Then can you show me your double twist dash-melee maneuver?”

Cole blinked at him. “My what?”

“That’s what I thought. Here, let me show you. We’ll try until you’ve got it down.”

“Who put you in charge?”

“You did. Literally. You guys chose me to be the team captain for the competition.”

“Whatever.”

“Lloyd, come here, so he has someone to practice on.”

“Why me?” “Because you need to work on your stealth. Kai got that jump on you surprisingly easily. You’re a good fighter, Lloyd, but fighting doesn’t matter if your enemy kills you before you have the chance. Practice your stealth and dodging on Cole.”

“Ready to get your butt kicked, bud?” Cole reached his hands out, cracking his knuckles before picking up the controller.

“Ha! You wish. The only one who will be getting their butt kicked is-”

The sharp rapping of something against the floor interrupted him, and they turned to see Master Wu standing behind them, his gaze disapproving as he clutched his staff firmly in hand.

“Students, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Uhh, practicing for the Critical Conquest tournament?” Nya said. “I thought that was pretty obvious!”

Wu glared at her. “I know what you’re doing. But I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut all this short. The six of you have many chores to do.”

“Chores?” they cried in unison.

“The past week since you bought that game, you have done nothing but sit around on that couch and play it. In all that time, your chores have piled up. Now, I’m cutting you off. They need to be done, now.”

“But Master!” Jay pleaded. “The tournament starts in only a few hours!”

Master Wu smirked. “Well, I guess you better be fast, then.”

---

The ninja stared down at the alarmingly long list Master Wu had given them, no one speaking a word for nearly a solid minute.

“Why,” Kai groaned, “did we ever put all of these off?”

“Why didn’t Master Wu just let us wait one more day to do the chores?” Jay complained. “The tournament would be all over then!”

“Well, he didn’t,” Cole said. “So there’s no use in complaining. We might as well get started.”

“Alright, guys, if we’re going to get through all of this before the tournament starts, we’re gonna have to divide and conquer,” Nya said. “Let’s see. Zane, Lloyd, you guys take the kitchen. Jay, Cole, you can check the vehicles to make sure they’re operating properly- wait, scratch that, Cole doesn’t know shit about mechanics. Besides, putting you two alone together is never a good idea.”

“Hey!”

“Zane, you go with Jay on the machines. Cole, you’re with Lloyd. Kai and I will work outside on raking and fixing the training course.”

“Hey, no fair, you just gave yourself the easiest job!” Cole grumbled.

“I’ll inform you that raking leaves is very mundane!”

“Yeah!” Kai snapped. “Especially when it’s cold out like this. I’m gonna freeze my fingers off!”

“You’re the fire ninja, you’ll figure something out,” Nya snapped. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Hey, Cole? You think this is so easy? We can trade places! You wanna trade places?”

“Actually, I’ve decided to be nice and let you take this one.”

Kai glared at him. “You’re only saying that because you know I hate it!” Cole leaned back against the table, smirking. “Maybe.”

“Come on, Kai, we’re going.” Nya grabbed his hand and yanked him out the door.

“I guess we better get working,” Cole sighed. “Jay, Zane, you guys need a copy of your tasks?” Zane shook his head. “I’ve got the list committed to memory. And there’s a lot to do, so we better go.”

As they left the room, Cole turned to Lloyd. “Put a check mark or something by the things the others are doing, so we can see what’s left for us.”

Lloyd made little marks next to the tasks, his pencil slowing as it reached the end. His frown deepened. “I swear, this list is getting longer. Some of these are just ridiculous! Polish the counters? Clean out the oven? Dust the tops of the cabinets? Who does these things?”

“Normal people, Lloyd. It’s not my fault that we’re so busy saving the city that you’ve never done anything more than the most basic chores in your life.”

“I’ve done chores!” “Darkley’s doesn’t count, bud. I bet the only thing you did there was clean spiders out of your bed.”

“They were fire ants,” Lloyd grumbled.

Cole turned on him with wide eyes. “What?”

Lloyd stiffened, suddenly seeming to realize what he had just said. “Uh… I mean… don’t tell Kai, okay?”

Cole stared at him for a moment, before sighing. “I’ll let it go, this once. But only because you’ve had a lot worse things than fire ants since then. Those kids are jerks, though.”

“I know.”

“... They really did that?”

“Yes, Cole! Do I need to show the scars to prove it?”

“No! I was just- you know what, forget I even said anything. Let’s get to work. First up, doing the dishes.” They turned towards the sink, where dozens of dirty plates and cups had accumulated.

“Seriously? Doesn’t anyone ever clean off their dishes after eating?”

Cole shot him a look. “Name one time you did that.”

“Okay, so never, but we’re ninja, not dishwashers! What do you expect?”

“Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today, Lloyd.”

Lloyd groaned. “I can’t believe I’m missing Critical Conquest for this.”

---

“Jay! You’re supposed to be repairing the sentry cannons on the Land Bounty!” “Chill out, Zane, I’ll get to it in a minute-”

Zane suddenly snatched the remote control out of his hand. “Jay! We’re never going to finish in time for the tournament if you don’t focus! Stop playing with toys!” “It’s not a toy!” He gestured towards the small remote-controlled robot. “This thing is going to be a major distraction! It could make it or break it for us in battle!”

Zane eyed the robot skeptically. “This. Distract our enemies?”

“Well, I was going to make it into a smoke bomb, but someone kept pestering me!” “Look, Jay, this isn’t the time to work on your inventions. You can do that later. Right now, you need to fix the sentries.”

“I already looked at the sentries,” he whined. “They were completely fried in our last adventure. I have to rewire the whole thing.”

Zane blinked at him. “Isn’t… that kind of your job?”

“Yeah, well, it’s hard work! I don’t want to do it! I’ll take any other chore on your list.”

“Well, someone needs to do it, and you’re the only one who knows how.”

“Not true! Why don’t you ask Pixal?”

He gestured towards the nindriod, who was tinkering with what appeared to be a small metal box.

“Pixal,” he called, walking over to her, “do you know how to rewire the sentries?” “Yes, but I know for a fact that Jay does, too. I’m not doing it for you.”

“Aww, come on, Pix,” Jay groaned. “Why don’t you have to do anything while the rest of us are all working our butts off?”

She glanced wryly at Jay’s little robot, who was waving cheerfully at her. “I wouldn’t exactly call it that. But I’m not helping because I already did all my chores while the rest of you were playing video games.”

Jay went pink in the face, and even Zane felt himself avoiding Pixal’s gaze.

“Critical Conquest is very important,” Jay muttered.

“More important than making sure all our weapons are operational? Or restocking the medbay?”

“We can do those things any time! The competition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

“Actually, there is another one next month-”

“Shut up, Zane. With our luck, we’ll probably be fighting evil nindroids or will be locked inside a different realm by that point, anyway.”

“I’m not helping you,” Pixal sniffed. “So I don’t know why you’re still here.”

Not taking Pixal’s… not-so-subtle hints, Jay leaned in towards her. “Whatcha workin’ on?”

Pixal eyed him warily. “... It’s a jetpack. I wanted to make something more compact in case I was in a situation where I couldn’t use the Samurai X suit.”

“That’s cool! Although, it might work better if you recalibrated the engines to-”

“Jay,” Pixal said sharply. “I know what I’m doing. Please go work on your chores.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. “No one ever lets me have any fun.”

Zane shook his head, wandering over to the Earth Driller where he was working on replacing the paneling that had been damaged in the Oni incident.

He couldn’t have been doing so for more than fifteen minutes when the sound of a small explosion interrupted him.

Zane jerked to his feet, dashing over to where the sound had come from.

Jay had jumped back from Pixal’s jetpack, which was now black and smoking.

Of course it was.

“What happened?”

Jay scratched his head nervously. “Well, you see… I really didn’t want to work on those sentries, so when I noticed Pixal stepping out of the room for a moment…”

Zane sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Are you alright?”

Jay grinned. “Right as rain. Not even a scar like last time!”

“Okay, that’s good, now I feel less bad for saying this- what were you thinking?”

“I couldn’t help myself, Zane! She calibrated it all wrong!”

“Well, evidently, you were the one who did it wrong, seeing as it exploded within five minutes of you getting your hands on it.”

Jay jumped nearly a foot in the air. “Pixal! You’re back! Ah… um, I’m really sorry about your jetpack, I was only trying to…”

Pixal marched forward, snatching it off the floor. “It doesn’t matter, it’s done now.”

“I can fix it-”

“You’ve done quite enough,” Pixal snapped. “Why don’t you just go finish your chores now?”

“But-”

Pixal held up the burnt jetpack, shaking it lightly. “You owe me.”

“Fine,” Jay groaned. “I’ll rewire the stupid sentries.”

---

“If I have to rake one more pile of leaves, something is going to end up on fire.”

“Well, luckily for you, that was the last of them.” Nya set down her rake, rubbing her hands together. “Now we just have to dispose of the leaf bags.”

She and Kai glanced over towards the towering pile of leaf bags, and Kai groaned.

“It’s going to take forever to throw these all away!”

“Kai, the dumpster is just on the other side of the Monastery wall!”

“Yeah, but we can only carry a few bags at a time, and we’re going to have to make so many trips!”

“Well, unless you’ve got a better idea, we don’t have a choice.”

Kai paused, his eyes lighting up. “Wait-”

“No, Kai, we are not burning the leaves.”

“I wasn’t going to say that! Although… it’s not a half-bad idea…”

“Kai!” “Okay, okay, no burning! What I was going to say was, why don’t we just toss the bags over the wall and into the dumpster?”

Nya frowned. “We’d miss half of them and then have to go over there anyway and pick them all up.”

“No, we could do it like in Critical Conquest! Remember? The ground-bash move? This is just like that!”

“Kai, that’s just a video game. This is real life!” “Yeah, but wouldn’t it still work?”

Nya frowned, stepping forward and eyeing up the roof of the Monastery. “I suppose if we got the right angle… we’d have to make sure an ample amount of newtons were applied with each hit to reach the correct velocity… and of course we’d have to take into consideration factors like density and wind acceleration per second and its tendency to carry-”

“Okay, okay, enough with your science-y nerd stuff!”

“It’s just basic physics, Kai. I mean, there are a lot of external factors to consider that wouldn’t be present in a lab setting, although I still think it would be quite simple-”

“Would it work or not?” Kai interrupted. “Yes or no, I want a one-word answer.”

“Yes. We just need to get the proper positioning-”

“Can I be the one bashing the bags?”

Nya sighed. “Only if you do exactly as I tell you-”

“Whoooooo!” Kai cried, running off to grab the rake as he swung it around fiercely. “Who’s ready to bash some leaf bags?”

“Kai! I said to do exactly as I say-”

---

Despite Nya’s initial trepidations, the process did not end up being a total disaster, and they actually ended up getting the chore done decently quickly. Now all they had left to do was to test and recalibrate the training course.

Nya glanced down at her watch. Only an hour and a half until the tournament started. Her chances of getting extra practice on those tricky combos were looking slimmer by the second. Hopefully, Kai’s mastery of the game, Jay’s high skill levels, and Cole’s advanced items and power-ups would be enough to help them beat-

“Nya!” Kai shrieked. “I said, turn it off!”

Nya snapped out of her thoughts, glancing up at her brother, who had been knocked to the ground by a whirring training dummy. “Oh, shit!” She spun towards the controls and shut them down, jogging over to Kai. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think so, I just-” Kai reached for her extended hand, pulling back with a sharp cry as they made contact.

“What?” “My hand,” he grimaced. “It hurts like hell.”

---

“You can’t throw out the Eggo Waffles!” Lloyd insisted, grabbing at the box in Cole’s hands

“Lloyd, they expired three days ago.”

“So what, they’re still edible.”

“They’re going.” Cole gave the box a strong tug, jerking it out of Lloyd’s hands and dropping it in the garbage. Lloyd huffed, crossing his arms.

“Kai would’ve let me keep them.”

“No, he wouldn’t have, because he doesn’t want you to get food poisoning.”

Lloyd paused for a moment, before amending, “Jay would’ve let me keep them.”

Cole sighed. “Yeah, and then you guys would’ve eaten them, and we would’ve ended up with two sick ninja.”

“I wouldn’t get sick! I have these super cool powers that protect me-”

“We don’t have any proof of that. We still don’t know exactly what your powers do.”

“Which means we can’t rule that out yet!”

Cole rubbed his head. “Out of all the people I could’ve gotten stuck cleaning out the freezer with… it had to be you. The one who gets emotionally attached to frozen waffles.”

“I am not emotionally attached-”

“Are you kidding me? He can’t play with this on! This thing is stiff, it seriously restricts his movement!” “It’s not a question, Jay, he needs to keep it on!”

“Is it actually that bad, though? Couldn’t he skip it for one game?”

“Not unless you want it to get worse!” Cole and Lloyd exchanged a glance and stepped out into the hallway, where the other four ninja were gathered.

“What’s going on?”

Zane opened his mouth to speak. “There was-”

“Kai!” Lloyd interrupted suddenly, darting over to him. “What happened to your hand?”

Cole blinked, realizing for the first time that Kai had a swathe of bandages wrapped around his hand.

Kai yelped in pain as Lloyd touched it, and the green ninja recoiled, his eyes widening in guilt. “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry!”

Nya rolled her eyes. “Don’t apologize, Lloyd, he’s fine. He’s just being a big baby about all of this.”

“Am not. It hurts!”

Zane stifled a sigh. “Kai, it is only a bad pulled muscle. Apart from being painful and needing plenty of rest, it’s nothing serious.”

“Well, you don’t know what it feels like,” Kai snapped. “It’s a lot worse than ‘nothing serious.’”

“I scanned you. I am quite certain my diagnosis is correct.”

Nya snickered, and Kai shot her a look. “Shut up, you. You’re the one who did this to me.”

“You’re the one who wasn’t paying attention!” “Yeah, well, you’re the one who was supposed to be-”

“Guys!” Jay cried. “Can’t you see we have more pressing matters at hand? Severe injury or not, Kai can’t play Critical Conquest like this. And he’s our best player!”

“Alright,” Lloyd said. “So we don’t have our best player anymore. That’s bad. But Jay’s still a beast! And Cole, and Nya, and everyone except me, basically-”

“He could be the worst player in all of existence and it still wouldn’t matter,” Cole pointed out. “We need six players to compete or they will disqualify us.”

“But if Kai can’t play, we have no one else! There are no backups!” Nya huffed, turning on Jay. “You’re our team captain! Why didn’t you prepare any backups?”

“Because we know no one else! We live in an isolated monastery at the top of the tallest mountain for miles, what did you expect? Besides, I wasn’t anticipating this to happen!” Zane frowned. “Well, if Kai can’t play, and we have no backup, then our only choice is to drop out-”

“Wait!” Jay cried suddenly. “I think I might have an idea of someone.”

---

“Please please please please-”

Pixal raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you really think begging is going to change my mind?”

“Please, Pixal, we need a sixth player, and you’re the only person I can think of!”

“Why would I help you after you blew up my jetpack?” Kai gaped at him. “You what?”

Jay fought back the heat spreading across his face. “That’s not important right now! Pixal, I promise I’ll fix it, just please compete with us!”

Pixal frowned at him, which wasn’t the most reassuring answer.

“C’mon Pix- I’ll do anything.”

“I don’t know, Jay-”

“We’ll do all your chores for the next month.”

“What?” “We will?”

“Jay, what the heck! We never agreed to that!”

Pixal smiled at him. “I would’ve accepted it if you offered a week, but that’s very generous of you.”

The others shot him smoldering glares, and Jay groaned. “It doesn’t matter, we don’t have time for this.” Glancing down at his phone, he sucked in his breath. “We’ve only got an hour until the tournament! Zane, can you teach Pixal how to play?”

Zane blinked at him. “In an hour?”

“Just cover the basics. We don’t have time for perfection. Just teach her as much as you can before the tournament starts.”

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

As soon as they were out of the room, Jay wheeled around, moaning. “We are so hooped! She doesn’t know how to play! Kai, how could you be careless enough to injure yourself?”

“Oh, sure, blame the victim!” Kai snapped. “Would it kill you to show a little sympathy to your injured teammate?”

“You pulled a muscle, you baby!” Nya groaned. “Pixal’s a fast learner, hopefully, she’ll get the hang of it.”

“Fast learner or not, nothing can beat hours of experience,” Lloyd said. “Let’s just hope the other contestants aren’t as good.”

---

“These dudes are insane!”

Jay continued to scroll through the queued-up players, examining their stats, his jaw dropping. “How much have these people been grinding?”

“So much for an easy win,” Lloyd grumbled.

Zane and Pixal walked into the room, holding their controllers. “I think I’ve done everything I can with Pixal. The competition starts in five minutes, I suggest we get ready.”

“Alright.” Jay turned towards Pixal as Zane worked on setting up the game. “We’re going to need your help, but since you don’t have experience, I think the best move is to have you stay behind us and play defense.”

Pixal smirked. “I’ll do my best.”

“Guys, we have to queue up!” “Are the headsets working?”

“They’re ready, what about the controllers? All charged?”

“We really shouldn’t be checking these kinds of things literally three minutes before the tournament, but yes, they are.”

“Hurry, guys! It’s about to start!”

Zane blinked at the screen. “Jay… you named our team the Fast Chickens?”

“It’s a good name!” The others groaned, and Jay glared at them. “We’ll see who’s complaining when we win this thing!”

Jay fidgeted through most of the opening speeches from the hosts of the competition as they went over rules and procedures. And, after what simultaneously felt like both a million years later and only the blink of an eye, the game was finally starting. They got lucky with their spawn point, and after a few minutes, were able to collect some good resources and get a good start. Cole, Zane, and Nya were able to take down some of the weaker groups before they collected supplies while Jay and the others continued collecting and building up defenses.

Checking the score count, he could see there were already twenty teams down in various parts of the map, and he knew his team had been responsible for felling three of them. Jay couldn’t stop himself from smiling. It seemed like nothing could be going better.

That is, until they suffered a major blow on the southwestern flank of their territory against a high-level team- the CrownViolets, they called themselves. (Which was nowhere near as cool sounding as the Fast Chickens, Jay totally wasn’t insecure about that at all.) After a fierce fight that ended up costing them several lives- and robbing Zane of his last, taking him out of the game- they realized they couldn’t win this fight and backed down, sacrificing a sizeable chunk of their turf.

While still monitoring that boundary, they decided to primarily focus on expanding in the other direction. Their tactic seemed to be working well, and although the CrownViolets kept on encroaching on them from the boundary, the other teams weren’t backing down, and although none managed to defeat the rival team, they were certainly taking their tolls on them. Jay hoped that the other teams would eventually take the Violets out for them, although he had to admit that would be extremely lucky.

They were getting down to the last few teams in the tournament. When the top ten were remaining, special, more deadly weapons were hidden around, and with them, teams began to fight back harder. The Fast Chickens held their own, but by the time they were down to two teams remaining- them and the CrownViolets- both Jay and Lloyd had been killed and eliminated. Only Cole, Nya, and Pixal remained. The CrownViolets still had four players left, but they were weak. If the ninja were strategic enough, they could still win this.

But Pixal was a major hindrance. She had been plenty good at holding back and defending them, but now, with so few left, she was going to have to start playing a more active role. If only Kai had still been there.

“Alright, they’re somewhere around here.” Nya’s character pulled up her radar. “There seems to be two of them right up ahead-”

“Alright, Pixal.” Jay leaned over her shoulder, coaching her. “You’re going to have to start getting offensive. Nya says there’s only two, so there shouldn’t be a problem, but there could be an ambush, or these two could have higher health. We don’t want to take any chances. While Nya and Cole rush them, you should stay back and shoot at them with your launchers. Your character has good accuracy scores.”

There was a flash of purple, and muffled shouting, and Nya froze. “There they are! Let’s get them, guys!”

The three plunged into the fight, and although it was a tough battle, their opponents were relatively low on health, and they ended up eliminating the two CrownViolets- unfortunately, with the loss of Nya before doing so.

“It’s just the two of us left, Pixal,” Cole said, “but there’s also only two of them, as well. We can do this. Just stick close to me. They’re around here somewhere.”

“And that somewhere is here!” Pixal shrieked suddenly, whirling around.

Cole’s eyes widened. “One of their teammates must’ve sent out a distress signal before they died!” He grappled for his weapon, but in his haste, his grip was sloppy.

Pixal, however, barely hesitated, diving at their opponent and attacking in a flurry of blows. Jay’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head as she performed a complex combo it had taken him a full day to learn.

Zane smiled at all their gaping mouths. “I told you to have faith in her.”

Cole was evidently shocked too, and within a few moments, he was dead- although not before delivering a nearly fatal blow to his opponent. Pixal quickly finished him off before turning to face the last remaining player.

“Be careful, Pix,” Jay warned. “She still has pretty high health. Don’t get cocky, or take dumb risks.”

“Dumb risks are your thing,” Pixal corrected, not even batting an eye as she darted past her opponent, slashing her with her sword.

The CrownViolet wasn’t giving up, though. She pushed back, throwing down a smoke bomb and suddenly pushing Pixal down from behind. Pixal rolled out of the way, missing her sword by inches, and sprung up, taking the moment of surprise to her advantage to knock her opponent down. As the rival started crawling away, Pixal’s character took a potion, powering up a special move. The opponent knocked her down as she was waiting to power up, but before she could get a good attack in, Pixal was ready and was blasting her a beam of light.

The girl’s avatar fell to the ground, dead.

There was a beat of silence, then their living room erupted in cheers.

“Pixal! You did it! You won the game for us!”

“I can’t believe it! We actually won! Without Kai!”

“Hey,” Kai yelped. “That didn’t sound like it was meant to be a compliment.”

“What do you mean,” Lloyd said. “That was totally a super nice thing I just said about you.”

Kai narrowed his eyes. “A bit backhanded, don’t you think?”

“Guys, none of that is important!” Cole cried. “We won! Out of all the gamers in the city! We actually won!”

“But I have to know,” Jay insisted. “How did you get so good at the game?”

Pixal shrugged. “I guess you pick up a thing or two watching your team play a game obsessively for the past week.”

Jay blinked. “You’ve been watching us?”

She scowled. “I’ve been doing the chores in here, lightning brain! Repairs, laundry, picking up after you- you’ve just been too obsessed by your game to even notice me!”

“Oh, really? Uh, that’s my bad…”

“Speaking of which, you promised to do my chores, and I’m looking forward to a nice, relaxing evening off.”

“Did I?” Jay laughed nervously. “Hey, did I ever mention that the tournament winners get a cash prize-”

Pixal handed him a mop. “Nice try. Although I still expect my fair share of the earnings by the end of the week. Good luck.” The ninja just gazed at her in horror, and she laughed.

“You’re going to need it.”

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only-lonely-stars · 3 years

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The Future is Bright, Chapter 6

[Chapter 1 (Beginning)] // [Chapter 5] // [Chapter 6 - you are here!] // [Chapter 7] // [Chapter 10 (End)] (FFN)

Cole now knows what he’s seen, but he still doesn’t know what it means. There’s still so much to know, and the mystery is centered in Shintaro. Good thing he has an ally who can help him find answers!

Summary: What would happen if Cole had indeed had a reflection in the tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master? How would that have changed his life later? What would it have been? This story follows what might have happened if he had seen something, and what it was; who he would have become. What if his future was already decided?... (Rated T for safety. Alternate title: the Cosmic Spoilers AU.)

Chapter 6: Drawing Conclusions

With the drawing from the First Master's tomb in tow, Cole hadn't wasted much time in going back to Shintaro, and had left a couple of days later. If he had any luck– assuming luck was real, like destiny apparently was– it would be enough to help him find whoever he was meant to find. Then it was just a matter of dealing with whatever that was.

When he at last arrived back in Shintaro, Vania greeted Cole with an enthusiastic hug, almost knocking him over. "Cole! It's good to see you!"

Cole laughed and hugged back, grinning. "Good to see you too, Queenie! I missed you!"

She beamed at him just as widely, almost vibrating in her excitement. "What's going on? I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon!"

He nodded, brushing his hair back. "I had something I needed to talk to you about, and I figured in-person was better than a letter."

Immediately, her brow creased with worry. "Something to talk about? Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all!" He put up his hands defensively. "It's okay– everything's completely okay. I just wanted to talk to you about something that happened, and maybe get your opinions on it? If it's not a problem, that is."

"Oh! No, it's not a problem! I love talking to you." She turned her head questioning. "Did you want to talk somewhere private, or just anywhere?"

"Somewhere private, I think." He smiled awkwardly. "It's kind of... personal."

"I can do that!" She clapped her hands. "Follow me!"

Cole did as she asked, and she led him into the palace. They followed a few hallways, going deep into the palace, until they at last stopped in a private room with a fireplace. She shut the doors behind them, and together they sat on a couch before the fireplace.

When they were at last comfortable, she smiled at him. "So, what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

He sighed. "Okay, so I have to explain a little bit before I can get to it, but I'm kind of wondering if you can help me figure something out. It has to do with Shintaro."

"Okay." She nodded. "What do you need to know?"

"Well…" He shrugged. "I guess I kind of need to know about Shintaro customs, and stuff. There's a bit of a backstory to why I need to know."

"Go ahead and tell it," she urged him enthusiastically. "I have plenty of time, don't skimp on the details."

"Okay." He sighed, relaxing a little and managing a smile. He was just talking to Vania. There was nothing scary about that: she wouldn't judge him. "So, you probably heard about what happened a few years ago in Stiix, right?"

"Of course. All those ghosts!" She laughed. "That's one of the stories we heard about the soonest, I think."

"Probably, it was a big deal." He found himself talking with his hands as well as his voice, waving them around a bit. "Anyway, right before that, we were dealing with Morro. He wanted to get the Realm Crystal to summon the Preeminent. Still sound familiar?"

"Yeah, completely!" She leaned forward, invested. "What about it? Did you stop him?"

"We had to find it before he did– not that we succeeded, but it was okay." He thought back to the events. "It was hidden in the First Spinjitzu Master's tomb, and he made it only accessible to Spinjitzu Masters like him. Morro had possessed Lloyd so he could get in."

"That's terrible!" She frowned. "Is he okay after that?"

"He's okay." Cole smiled at her concern. "This was years ago, remember?"

"If you say so. I just wanted to make sure." She smiled back.

Cole chuckled. "Well, that's sweet of you."

She smiled a little more. "I try."

He grinned back. "Okay. When we got there, we found a bunch of traps that only Spinjitzu Masters could survive. One was this huge maze of ice– and when I say huge, I mean huge. Gigantic."

"A maze of ice? Wouldn't that melt?" She frowned in confusion. "Unless it was enchanted…"

"Maybe, I don't know. Whatever it was, it wasn't just normal ice." He paused, attempting to describe it. "When you look at your reflection in the ice wall, it shows you a reflection of your future self, and when we made our way through, I saw mine."

She gasped, staring at him in rapt attention. "You're kidding. It shows the future?"

"Yup."

That's– that's incredible! It must have been fascinating!" She grinned brightly. "Future vision sounds incredible!"

"It's really cool- no pun intended. It kind of showed me that I was going to be human again, which was really nice. Made it easier to deal with being a ghost."

"I can imagine." She leaned in a little closer. "Speaking of which, what was it like being a ghost?"

He chuckled. "Numb, really. You don't feel anything, just kind of cold. Not on my list of top ten recommended experiences."

"Probably not." She sat back, trying to control her excitement, but still clearly enamored with the story. "So… did you just see yourself as human? How does that connect to Shintaro?"

"I'm getting there." He pulled out his sketchbook as he spoke. "When we saw our reflections, Kai, Zane, and Jay saw themselves dressed like senseis. Jay even saw Nya with him, which was just proof that they've always been meant to be. Thing is, I didn't see the same thing." He flipped to the right page and handed it over. "Jay, Nya and I went back last week to take another look, and I drew what mine looked like."

She took the sketchbook gently and examined the drawing, tracing the lines with a light touch. A soft smile bloomed on her face. "You're an incredible artist," she commented.

"Thanks. I'm okay." He smiled, watching her look at it with that sweet look on her face. "So… what do you think?"

She hummed. "Well, it looks like Shintaran robes, obviously."

"Yeah, it does." He shrugged. "I don't know what the heck I saw, but I've kind of been on edge about it since we first visited. Do you know anything about what it means?"

"Hm…" She looked at him, and then back at the drawing, and held it up to compare. "Well… I can kind of tell some things." She examined it a little more closely. "In this, you're wearing white and blue. That's something not many Shintarans wear, because it's the royal colors, but it's not unheard of for non-royals if they want to emulate the royals. Plus, you're wearing your own crest, not the royal one."

"Wait, there's a royal crest?" He looked at her quizzically. "I've never seen it."

"Oh, absolutely!" She smiled at him, brushing her bangs out of the way. "It's a spear and some clouds. You might've seen it around the palace somewhere if you looked close enough."

"I don't know." He laughed. "Last time I was here, I spent most of my time underground."

"That's fair." She laughed too and looked back down, pointing at the sketch to direct him. "See your belt? That's where you might wear your crest in Shintaran formal wear."

"Huh! It's still my dragon..."

"Yep. Either that's the crest you stuck with for just yourself if you came here, or that's the crest your family would take on. Either way, it's not unheard of either." Her brow furrowed. "That said, the style of robes is pretty impractical for everyday wear. This is formal clothing, like I said, so I think it's probably likely that it's royal clothing. That explains the colors better."

His heart caught in his chest. "Royal clothing? Are you saying I become part of the royal family?"

"If you got married and your yin was a Shintaran royal, yes." She smiled up at him again. "Sounds like you'll be moving up in the world."

"Huh." He smiled faintly, head spinning with the possible meanings and making him feel a little dizzy. He had thoughts about how little he knew of Shintaro, yet it was clear how much this meant here… was there extended royalty in the Shintaran royal family?

Eventually, he found his voice. "That's… that's a thought."

"I bet it is." Her smile formed into yet another infectious grin. "That said, it would be awesome!"

That threw him for a loop. "Huh? How come?"

"Because then you'd live here! Then we could see each other all the time!" she chirped. "I mean, it's obviously not great to leave Ninjago, because that's your home and you love it and you've always protected it, but it would be amazing to have you around! You'd love to live here in Shintaro, I guarantee it."

He shrugged. "Oh, I wouldn't know... I haven't put much thought into that part of it."

"Maybe you should."

"Maybe…" He reached over and pointed at a gold smudge on the paper next to the sketch of himself. "Okay, see that?"

"Yeah. Is that supposed to be there?"

"Yep. The ice walls sometimes show other people, too, but all I saw was a blur. It's my one clue to whoever my yin is supposed to be. She's got really bright blonde hair– just like yours, actually." He shrugged. "I don't know how common that color of hair is here, but either way it narrows it down."

"It's not that common," she noted. "I haven't met many other people with the same color. Most people here are brunette."

"Then it's even easier."

The conversation fell quiet, and a familiar anxiety crept back into his mind. His mind spun tales of the possibilities, some of which he dared not even think... but he was snapped from his thoughts when he felt Vania's hand on his arm. "Cole? Are you okay?"

He laughed humorlessly and nodded, shaking himself. "Uh, yeah. Sorry. I'm just– it's a lot to think about."

"I can imagine." She smiled compassionately. "I know you haven't really liked the idea of a relationship– just about everyone knows that. It must be pretty hard, knowing in the future you've got that, despite how much you don't want it yet."

He nodded. "Yeah, uh, you hit the nail on the head." He brushed his hair back anxiously. "I don't do relationships; never have, actually. Now the creator of entire realms has given me cosmic spoilers and told me I'm marrying someone from another country. It's hard to process."

"I'd bet it is." She nodded along with his story. "Having your future set for you before you get to it isn't fun."

"You must know about that, right?"

She let her hand rest on his arm comfortingly. "I do. I didn't really ever get told I could be anything but the queen in the future. It made some things easier, but others harder." She laughed quietly. "I can't imagine what it must be like to be told that, but about whoever you're going to end up marrying."

"Yeah, that's it. I don't know what to do, if I'm honest."

"Well, you could do a couple things." She shrugged, letting go of his arm.

"What do you mean?" He leaned in, listening intently.

Vania giggled at his blatant interest, and then began counting on her fingers. "One: you ignore it. Not the best idea, in my opinion, but it would work for a little bit. The future comes to pass whether we want it to or not."

"Yeah, definitely can't just expect it not to happen. Already tried that." He smiled.

"Yeah, exactly." She smiled back. "Two: you wait. You can let it happen in its own due time and do other things now, instead. Instead of pushing it and trying to find her, you can let her find you."

"But that'd leave it hanging over my head," he dismissed. "That's happened for long enough already, too."

"I figured you'd say that." She laughed quietly. "Three: you start looking for her now with what you know. She's got to be a noble or royal, and since she's blonde, you've got plenty of clues." She shrugged absently. "Of course, you could be wrong about part of it, and get mixed up, but you could try at least."

He nodded, thinking it over. Would it be worth it to look for her? Of course, there was always the possibility that he, Jay and Nya had been wrong. What if he was wrong? Or… what if she was right under his nose? What if they were right?

He sighed. "I guess I should figure out who it is, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm right about what I actually saw."

"Well…" She paused. "You drew it while looking at it, didn't you?"

"I did." He shook his head. "I just– my mind's playing tricks on me. I kind of wish I could see it again, but a third visit, and going alone at that, doesn't sound like much fun."

She hummed. "You have a point… I must admit, I'm extremely curious. It sounds fascinating to see the future!"

"It really is." Would it be worth it to go alone?...

She closed the sketchbook and handed it back. "Well… what if I come with you? We can look at it together and figure out what we're doing to find your yin."

"Really?" He took the book back. "You'd want to see it? I thought you wouldn't want to."

"Sure! It sounds fascinating, and I'd love to know a little more about my future, even though it's already mostly laid out for me. It would be another adventure!" She grinned. "That is, if you don't mind me coming along?"

"No, I'd be happy to bring you!" He grinned back. "That place is a little creepy when you're alone, seeing as it's a tomb."

"Well then, let's make it not creepy!" She got to her feet gracefully, seemingly energetic. "Let me just change and talk to Hailmar, and then I'm ready to go. We can make a day of it."

"Okay. It's a bit of a trip, dress warmly." He pocketed the sketchbook.

"Will do!" she chirped. "Make yourself at home! I'll come find you when I'm ready."

"Okay." Instinctively he wanted to come with her, but he kept himself back. There wasn't a reason to follow her, just that... well, she was the one he came to visit, but it would only be a little wait. There wasn't a need to miss her already.

Having gotten his thoughts in order, Cole stayed in the room and took the book out. As he looked at the sketch, his thoughts swirled in confusion. Who was this blonde royal he was supposed to be marrying? His suspicions fit too perfectly… but was it what he suspected?

#ninjago #ninjago fanfic #ninjago au #ninjago cole #ninjago vania #cole brookstone #princess vania #vania #cole x vania #vania x cole #colania #vanillacake #vanillacakeshipping #OLST fanfic #the future is bright #fun fact: I had a heck of a time formatting this #and it took me a LONG time to find Chapter 5 on my own blog #but the links must be respected!

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aweebwrites · 5 years

Text

Where Be Dragons? Pt.2

Part 1 of Where be Dragons

Part 1 of Series

___________________

'Jay! Hope you don't mind seafood!' Kai yelled as they returned.

'Depends!' Dragon Jay groaned as he slowly got up, yawning.

He however looked at the parts of crustacean they brought in confused.

'What's that?' He asked as they all brought their pieces over to the two dragons they left behind.

'Some kind of mutant crab. Ninjago has a lot of undiscovered species.' Kai shrugged then slid down off of Lloyd's wing. 'It's tasty though.' He called over his shoulder as he walked towards the others with a makeshift bag he made out of a large leaf.

'I came across some wild figs and bananas. Thought you guys would like em.' He says, placing it before them.

"Didn't catch any of that at all but thanks!" Jay says, reaching out and taking a banana.

"Sorry." Kai says sheepishly, embarrassed that he forgot to switch to words again.

"Worry not." Wu reassured him, taking a fig.

"You guys did take your own food... Right?" Kai queried.

"Of course! What do you think your bag's full of? You're a savage. You don't need more than one suit of spare clothes." Jay says around his banana.

"Rude Jay." Kai huffed as he walked back over to the dragons.

"It was a joke!" Jay called after him. "But I really did pack one suit of clothes for him." He says, leaning back against his duffle bag of clothes.

"I heard that!" Kai yelled and he laughed sheepishly.

___________________

Night fall found Dragon Lloyd sleeping under his father's still overly large wing with Kai under his and Morro close by. Everyone else piled in, careful of their smallest member. Human Wu, Jay and Lloyd were asleep not too far away in their sleeping bags around a burnt out fire. At least, two of them were. Red glowing eyes opened, slitted pupils blowing wide open to adjust to the complete darkness. Lloyd looked around, sharp hearing not picking up any indications of anyone but himself being awake. He sat up slowly, carefully sliding out of his sleeping bag and walking out towards the entrance of the cave. He quietly sat at the cliff at the edge of a platform large enough for the dragons to land on.

The dragon's words were echoing in his head. He sneered, revealing fangs glinting in the moonlight. He knew nothing. A monster couldn't be the green ninja. He was fine growing up, it never showed. He never knew. It was after the tomorrow's tea incident that things changed. His body started to change more than him getting older. It felt as if something was trying to break free those three days he holed himself away from the ninja. By the end of it, he knew he wasn't human.

Not fully at least. He didn't have as much scales as Kai did and his hind legs and clawed hands faded to black from knees and elbows down. The few scales he did have dotted his shoulders and spine, coming across his upper chest. They were the same green as his human eyes. He looked down at his feet before taking of his shoes, taking a breath then holding it as he let them change. He dug his claws into the ground as they changed, intense pain radiating as he did. Once they were fully changed, he released the breath with a shudder, focusing greatly on keeping his breathing even to not wake anyone. They hurt... But only because this is the first in 4 months he's let them change. He usually did so once a week for a few minutes or an hour and it would be fine but ever since Kai came back...

He glanced up. It just reminded him that he has to be perfect. Ninjago didn't take Kai's shapeshifting well at first. Not even their friends did. They treated him like some kind of freak show attraction and Ninjago city thought him a monster. Things would be different for him. Worse. He was the green ninja. Ninjago's protector. Ninjago's saviour. He was the leader of the ninja, an example. He had to be normal. He wasn't disillusioned. Even if he should show this form to them, this monster he is to them all... They wouldn't be as accepting as he was to Kai. Kai was part dragon and dragons are all fine and dandy but he was part Oni. He had done the research after this had first happened and he knew. Oni were destructive demons that fought against the dragons in the first realm. He and Kai would probably become enemies. He didn't want that. Kai was his brother...

Although he seem to have found a new one already.

Lloyd couldn't help the bitter thoughts. Hiding it all as long as he has... It's been hard. It hurts. But... He prodded at his lower canine that jutted up out of his mouth. They wouldn't accept this. He'll just keep hiding it, baring through the pain. He'll be fine. He bit back a whimper as he forced himself to return to normal, feeling the shifting in his anatomy to do so painfully. He'll be fine.

Garmadon watched him in silence. He won't be fine and going by what he just witnessed, he will find out soon just how bad this is for himself. He didn't want things to advance that far but it appears to be the only way for him to see reason. He closed his eyes again. It will be a hard lesson, but one worth learning.

___________________

"They have powers like us, right?" Jay asked, holding on to his dragon counterpart's tail as he slowly flicked it back and forth.

"Yeah. Though just like Sensei Wu, Dragon Wu and Garmadon here don't use theirs so I can't say for sure what it's like." Kai shrugged, unphased by the battle over him, over him.

Lloyd and Morro were growling at each other, each of them wanting to spend time with the smallest member of their family. Kai lifted his head to look up at them.

'Here's an idea. How about you two spend time with each other?' Kai suggested and their growls stop immediately.

'Are you kidding me? Spend time with him?' Morro says, glaring at Lloyd who growls at his tone.

'Yes, him. You have a lot more in common than you think.' Kai says, patting both of their paws. 'Him and everyone else. They'd like to be friends with you too.' He says to Morro more specifically who looked uncomfortable.

Lloyd saw this and felt bad. He, much like the others, didn't know what happened to Morro. He was born after he was gone after all. But it looks like he was on his own. At least he had Kai for half the time he got separated from his father...

'Hey dad, is it ok for Morro and I to go out flying?' Lloyd asked his father and Morro looked at him surprised.

'Zane, do you mind going with them? I trust you to be responsible.' Garmadon says to the white and blue dragon sitting up.

'Certainly.' Zane nods, getting to his feet.

'I can be responsible too!' Nya huffed from where she was laying on her back.

'Oh, really?' Garmadon says, eyeing the loop of water she had going in the air, more than enough to drown their smaller friends.

'... I see your point.' She says and Kai snickers.

'Don't go too far!' Kai called as Lloyd and Zane stood by the mouth of the cave, Morro walking over still wholly uncomfortable.

'We won't!' Lloyd called back before they flew off.

"Are you ok Lloyd?" Sensei Wu asked his nephew, noticing a pinched look on his face.

"I'm fine uncle. I should be getting used to sleeping on the ground by now." Lloyd says, arching his back before slumping.

"I see. Then perhaps you should join Kai with the dragons tonight. I'm sure they wouldn't mind." His uncle suggested.

"No, that's fine. I just need to walk around for a bit." Lloyd says as he stood.

"You sure you're ok?" Kai asked, watching Jay attempt to climb his dragon self, knowing he will fall at some point.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lloyd called over his shoulder, heading out to the mouth if the cave then walking to the side. "Shit." He whispered, looking down at his clawed right hand, his fingertips blackened.

He couldn't make it go back to normal.

______________

Meanwhile on the Bounty, the ninja were almost there but utterly bored.

"They must be having all sorts of fun." Cole says with a pout, wanting to hang out with the dragon version if himself.

"Our mission here is far more vital." Zane pointed out next to him on deck as Nya piloted the ship.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. But dragons Zane. Dragons!" Cole emphasized.

"Kai seemed ecsatatic to have his old family back. Or rather, new." Zane says with a frown.

"What are you trying to get at?" Cole asked, not sure he'd like his answer.

"... Perhaps, he might want to go with them... Back to their dimension." Zane spoke quietly.

"What? No way! Kai loves it here with us!" Cole protested.

"Indeed. But it seems he would be happier with the dragons. You can't deny you haven't seen it. When he thinks he's alone, he always sighs in a way that indicates homesickness." Zane pointed out and Cole when to argue but paused.

He did see Kai do that before. More than once. He didn't think... Cole frowned, looking over the edge of the Bounty. What if Kai really wanted to go with them? How would they function without their brother?... Nya frowned, hearing the conversation from the bridge. She had the same doubts and had hoped the conversation would convince her that it wasn't so, not confirm it. When the find Vortica... She might have to also say goodbye to her brother...

________________

Lloyd had to keep both hands tucked into his pockets as he panicked on the inside. Something is wrong. He can't turn his hands back to normal and they keep slowly changing on their own. Slowly but surely. He couldn't stop it. It hurts. It hurts so badly. As if both of his hands have been broken. He was glad that he wore long sleeves but that was the least of his problems. He could feel his legs starting to go. If they do then he'd be exposed. They would know he was a monster. He was debating with himself on speaking to the dragon version of his father about it. He knew he didn't have a choice but he was trying to delay the inevitable. He abruptly turned around from his standoffish position to the far left of the back, walking towards the black and white dragons waiting on him.

'How do I stop this? How do I look normal again?' He asked them once the dragon version of his uncle helpfully laid beside him, blocking the view of him from his human counterpart since Kai took Jay hunting with the other dragons.

'You cannot stop this.' Dragon Wu told him and Lloyd gritted his teeth.

'This is who you are. You have been denying this part of yourself for too long. It is fighting back.' Garmadon told him patiently, paws crossed in front of him.

'Then what good are you for?' He growled as he turned away, ready to stalk off.

'You must have faith in your family Lloyd. Do not let your fears and doubts blind you from the truth.' Garmadon told him and Lloyd paused.

Just then, he sounded just like his father. So... Wise. Yet so blind that while he hadn't passed the evil the venom of the Great Devourer to him, he passed on its physical effects. The tomorrow's tea didn't just make him older, but made the mostly dormant genes he received run wild. He grunted as he dropped to his knees then, clawed hands coming up to grip his head.

No. He had to stop this. Had to fight it. If he didn't! If he doesn't! He whined as he dug his claws into the ground, his entire body feeling overrun by burning, pulsing, agonizing pain.

"Lloyd!" No Uncle! Stay away!

Sensei Wu didn't stay away however, he hopped up onto his dragon counterpart and gasped to see his collapsed nephew. He hopped down, setting his staff aside to place his hands on his shoulders.

"What is wrong Lloyd? Please tell me." He asked and Lloyd shook his head before grunting, an even more intense wave of pain washing over him and Wu gasped, seeing the black horns pushing out of his head.

He almost stepped back. Impossible. His Oni blood wasn't that strong... Was it? He was helpless to watch as Lloyd transformed fully, immediately falling unconscious once it was done. He looked over his nephew he held up so he didn't fall face first before turning him over. He... He spotted green scales along his neck and had to sit down to process this. Was this their dragon counterpart's doing? No. He had stark Oni features as well as Dragon features. This wasn't of their doing. But perhaps it was the doing of blood. His father's blood.

If there was ever a moment we need you brother, it is now.

A low croon sounded and he looked up at the large black dragon with red eyes.

But in a way, you already are here.

______________

"So, how was your first hunting trip?" Kai asked as Jay slid off of Nya's wing, onto the ground once they returned.

"Dragons are awesome!" Jay grinned, bouncing eagerly on his feet.

Flying was a little terrifying without a saddle but Kai played seatbelt for him. Then he got to watch the biggest, baddest monsters down there run away with their tails between their legs at the sight of them. Then he got to watch them hunt. Dragon Cole had used his earth powers to trap a Walliber that wandered too far and even though Kai told him they don't normally use their powers to hunt, it was still awesome!

"Hey, where's Sensei Wu?" Kai asked as they walked in.

'Over here. You may want to see this.' Kai frowned at Dragon Wu's response before he flew over.

He landed on his back from here he was laying down before gasping at the sight that waited below. Lloyd... His hands, his feet... He had horns??? He slid down, ignoring Jay's yells to look down at him confused.

"I... I don't understand..." Kai whispered, reaching out to touch but hesitating.

'This is who your human Lloyd really is. He has been fighting himself for so long, his true nature has rebelled.' Garmadon told him and Kai didn't know what to make of this.

"If this is what his true nature is, why would he hide it from us? Why didn't he at least tell me?" Kai says, hurt. "I would have understood. We're alike. At least somewhat..." He whispered, lowering his head.

"What... What happened to Lloyd?" Jay asked as he was helpfully lowered into the protective circle both black and white dragons made.

"Nothing has happened to Lloyd. The true question is what has he hidden from us." Wu says and they all fell silent, the dragons watching the humans.

Their Lloyd is different. Like them but also not. They sensed things would changed among the small group.

________________

Lloyd came to slowly, his ears ringing. What happened... His body hurt... He forced himself to sit up, grunting once he did, resting his aching hands in his lap. Why did- his eyes widened, looking down at his blackened hands, holding gleaming black claws. They widened even further looking down at his feet. Oh no. Oh no. Everything came back to him and his breathing picked up.

Uncle knew. He'd tell the others and they would hate him, all him monster. He is a monster. He's one of them. An Oni.

"Take it easy." His head whipped across to see Kai, amber eyes glowing in the low light of coming day. "You've been out a while. Are you thirsty?" He asked and now that he mentioned it, his throat felt as dry as Cole's cooking.

But he was wary. Why isn't he commenting on his appearance, asking why he did it? Why didn't he tell them he was a monster? Why wasn't he attacking him? He was a dragon, wasn't he? Oni and Dragons are enemies. Why was he treating him like a friend?

"Don't look at me like that." Kai says with a frown, startling him. "If you think I give a damn about what you look like, think again." He says with a low growl in his voice.

"You should. Can't you see? I'm an Oni. You should hate me. You should be attacking me." Lloyd says, a low growl slipping into his own voice.

"News flash! I don't give a shit it you're Oni, dragon, human or even a fucking fly. But that doesn't make me any less mad at you." Kai growled, tail whipping back and forth as Lloyd looked at him bewildered and confused.

"You've been knowing hurting yourself by hiding this. Why? Why not tell someone? Why not let us help you?" Kai demanded.

"What's there to help? This won't just go away! The team and Ninjago needs a leader, a hero. Not some- monster!" Lloyd hissed, gesturing to himself.

"You are not a monster!" Kai yelled, getting to his feet. "You are our brother! What the team, what Ninjago needs is for you to be happy and healthy. This isn't healthy and it sure as hell isn't making you happy! I don't know what ideas you've been putting in your head but you need to wake up! We don't care what you look like, as long as it doesn't hurt you- but this form isn't what's hurting you. You're hurting you! We can save you from anyone else but we can't save you from yourself!" He yelled, voice gone from angry to hurt and worried.

Lloyd sat there, stunned for a while. Before the consequences of his actions could set in, Jay who had been awoken along with everyone else by their argument decided to give his two cents.

"Kai's right Lloyd." He says, gaining his attention. "You're our friend, our brother. We don't care what you look like. We care that you've been hurting like this... And we were too blind to see it." Jay whispered, guilt settling in and Kai looked away, the same guilt hitting him.

He knew what someone in pain smelled like and he always smelt it on Lloyd but after the first few days of his return and him acting completely fine, he chalked it up to his overprotective nature. If he had prodded more, asked more questions, maybe he wouldn't have to be in pain for so long. Maybe things could have been different. He let this go on for this long. If he had been a better brother...

"I am deeply sorry if I somehow made myself difficult for you to speak to Lloyd." Sensei Wu whispered and Lloyd was sure he was going to get whiplash with all these quick head turns. "I realise I have been distant since the loss of your father but I will not let my emotions prevent me from being there for you any longer." He says, lowering his head and Lloyd wanted to scream.

This wasn't what he expected! Where is the anger? The hatred? The names?! They weren't supposed to be blaming themselves for his stupid mistakes! He didn't see this coming at all. Didn't dare hope.

'Do not let your fears and doubts blind you from the truth.'

The dragon's words echoed in his head and his eyes welled up with tears. They didn't hate him... They didn't think he was a monster... This had all been in vain. All he did was hurt them. Kai blinked once a small sob caught his ears. He whipped his head around, finding Lloyd rubbing at his eyes, trying to stop his tears but they kept pouring down his cheeks. Kai's heart broke seeing that. He looked so small and young. He didn't waste a second. He knelt next to him, pulling him into a hug, letting him cry into his naked shoulder.

"Let's just forget about the past. From now on, we'll take care of you like we should, yeah?" Kai whispered to him, stroking his scaled back.

"You better believe it." Jay says, leaving his sleeping bag to join the hug. "But if you don't tell any of us if you're in pain I'm gonna put you in even more pain." He threatened lovingly.

"We are all here for you Lloyd." Wu says, joining as well, all of them hugging it out.

Garmadragon and Dragon Wu watched, feeling accomplished. Their trip here may have been unwanted and unplanned but they were beginning to believe they were sent here for a purpose. Wu looked across at his son Morro, whom had his head rested against Jay's back, tail curled close to Cole. It has only been two days and so much progress has happened on them all. Both he and his brother felt humbled to have witnessed it.

________________

"Hey! You're getting the hang of it!" Jay says with a grin later on that day, watching Lloyd walk slowly on two legs.

"It's more comfortable on all four..." Lloyd mumbles, taking baby steps. "Woah!" He yelped as he lost balance and fell- but his dragon counterpart caught him.

'Keep going! You're almost there!' Dragon Lloyd crooned at his not so human self.

'Thanks...' He says with a smile before standing again, rolling his shoulders and gaining a determined look.

He then determinedly marched ahead, focusing on keeping his balance. He beamed when he was a few steps away from where his uncle was, enjoying a cup of tea. -Sadly, he tripped over his own foot before he got there, landing with a grunt before him.

"You know what they say. Gotta get up and try again." Kai chuckled as he flew over, picking him up and setting him down on his feet but he went down on all fours.

"Yeah? Well I need a break." Lloyd chuckled before giving himself a shake, getting most of the dust off of himself.

"You've made great strides already." Sensei Wu says, then sipped his tea. "Literally." He added and they laughed.

"Do you think it'll ever be possible to make video games dragons can play?" Jay asked as Dragon Cole, Nya, Jay, Zane and Blaze watched him play on his phone, entranced.

"Not likely." Kai says drily then returned his gaze to Dragon Wu who was nuzzling Morro as said dragon eagerly returned the sentiment.

It made Kai's heart full. Just two days and so much has changed, huh? His smile fell as he picked up a familiar sound.

The Bounty.

What if they found her? What if he had to say goodbye again, so soon?

He immediately felt guilty after thinking like that. Yes he wanted to keep both of his families but that would mean preventing them from going home and protect it. They loved him enough to let him go... It's time he did the same. He lowered his head. No matter how much it hurt. He turned to look at Garmadon and at Dragon Lloyd. They heard it too. They knew. He flew over, landing before them.

'I won't lie, I'm really starting to hate goodbyes.' Kai admitted as he looked up at them.

'I know the feeling.' Lloyd says, nuzzling him. 'But it's for the best. We both know that.' He says quietly and Kai smiled, stroking his snout.

'Father's rubbing off on you.' He says with a smile, allowing him to lift his head.

'Yeah, well... He's a good influence.' Lloyd says, lifting his head to look at him.

'My son.' Garmadon says, taking hin in his paw as he sat on his haunches. 'In time, you will learn that not all goodbyes are sad ones, and not all goodbyes mean an end.' He says and Kai glanced at tge others, already moving towards the exit.

'You know, I think I just did.' Kai smiled.

______________

"I'm sorry you were all sent from your dimension but at least this situation gave me a lock on the dimensional crystal." Vortica says to them all at the edge of the stone platform. "Let's just say in another dimension, someone interfered and gave the most powerful First Spinjitzu Master the idea to build a dimensional crystal instead of a Realm Crystal. Bad idea. Very bad." She explained at their confused expressions.

"This is the time for heartfelt goodbyes. I can only keep a portal open for 10 seconds." She warned and Kai smiled.

"We've already said our goodbyes." He says, looking at his dragon family.

"So you see going with them." Cole says solemnly and Kai blinked at him.

"What? No. Ninjago is where I belong." Kai says, confused.

"But you're always sad here. If you are then... Maybe you should go..." Nya whispered and Kai smiled, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Nya. It's fine. Yes I was sad but I wanted a little more tome with them, not to live there. And I got that time. I'm perfectly happy staying here with you guys. You're my family." He says, looking at them and they all smiled.

"But it's time for them to go home. It's been almost three months since they've been gone there." He pointed out.

"And with that..." Vortica says and opened a portal just beside her.

'Goodbye everyone!' 'We had fun!' 'See yah!' 'It's been fun!' 'The experience has been well!' 'Thanks.' 'Be well.' 'Best of luck' The dragons yelled as they rushed through.

'Goodbye brother.' Lloyd says from over his shoulder and Kai smiled, watching him go.

"See you guys too." Vortica says, saluting them before walking in too, the portal vanishing afterwards.

"Well..." Nya sighed loudly.

"... Does anyone wish to explain to us what has happened to Lloyd?" Zane asked as they walked over to the anchor of the Bounty.

"It's a long story." Lloyd huffed as they climbed on deck.

They startled once another flask of magenta came as a portal opened, allowing a dirty Vortica to hop out.

"Those Oni are something else." She huffed then blinked at them. "Right. Time difference. Catch." She says, throwing something sparkly and Kai caught it with enhanced reflexes.

"This is..." Kai says, looking at the glowing pink crystal in his hand.

"The Dimensional Crystal? Yes. But it only goes one place now. I trust you to take care of it." She says with a wink then looked sheepish. "Could I get a lift to Ninjago City? Dimensional portals doesn't have any travel perks."

"It's the least we can do after what you just gave him." Nya says with a smile, heading to the bride.

Kai looked down at the crystal in awe. He could really have the best of both worlds...

He grinned.

I suppose goodbye really isn't the end.

__________________

(All done! This was so long but so fun! I have to do at least one more installment of this au. I just??? Love it??? So much??? Second fic will be up in a few hours so keep an eye out!)

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lloydskywalkers · 5 years

Text

terrorize y’all’s neighborhood

I can’t write short fics, you guys. I tried.

Anyways, I know DOTD is the canon Ninjago-Halloween-equivalent thing, but I wanted to write about the ninja having a normal holiday, because in what world would Lloyd not love an opportunity to dress up and eat all the candy he wants?

(And the title is completely stolen from Thriller. Completely.)

Hope you guys are having a great holiday!

"Kai."

"Kai, look."

Kai rolls his eyes, glancing skyward briefly before turning.

Sure enough, Lloyd is holding a bloodied, rubber eyeball up to his own tightly closed one, his face screwed up in a grotesque expression. "Agh, my eye fell out!"

Kai leans one arm against the shopping cart, the other on his hip. "What did I tell you about picking stuff up we aren't gonna buy?" he says, even as he suppresses a snort.

Lloyd's expression falls, and he sticks his tongue out at him. "You're not fun," he grouses.

"I'm lots of fun," Kai says. "I'm just trying not to raise the Green Ninja to be a corrupt child criminal who steals bloody eyeballs from Walmart."

"I'm not stealing," Lloyd protests. "Look, I got it from the Halloween section, it's right there!"

Kai looks up and realizes that he has, indeed, made the crucial error of wandering into the Halloween section with Lloyd in tow, when they're only supposed to be getting a few groceries.

"Oops," he mutters.

"Oooh, look at all the fake blood they have…"

Kai quickly makes to drag Lloyd away before he's forever swallowed by aisles of plastic skeletons and cheap ghoul masks. "C'mon, bud, we've still gotta get stuff for meals," he says, as he tugs a reluctant Lloyd toward the food aisles. "We can't all eat rubber eyeballs for dinner."

"Aw, but they have so much cool stuff," Lloyd pouts, watching the Halloween aisle disappear forlornly. "What's the point of Halloween if you guys aren't even gonna let me celebrate it?"

Kai is only half-listening what Lloyd is saying, too intent on the scrawled shopping list he's got in his hand. He brings it closer to his face, squinting. Why do they keep letting Nya write the shopping lists? Her hand-writing is terrible, they should just appoint Zane as secretary from now on.

"-and that's why Halloween is clearly the best holiday in the entire world," Lloyd is still rattling on. "It's way better than those other dumb holidays, kris-ness, or whatever-"

"You mean Christmas?" Kai gapes at him. He shakes his head. "Boy, we're gonna have to change your mind on that one…"

Lloyd shakes his head. "Halloween is definitely the best, because you get to dress up and scare people, but most importantly you get-" He stops abruptly, eyes going wide as Kai desperately tries to drag them to the next aisle.

"Candy, Kai, can we stop, please, please please-"

"Lloyd, I told you, we're only here for groceries."

Lloyd groans, hanging off the shopping cart as Kai struggles to push it forward, kicking at Lloyd with his leg. "Just some of the mini snickers bars? The ones with little ghosts on them?"

"Lloyd-"

"I'll die without them."

"You've been hanging out with Jay too much," Kai huffs, dragging Lloyd up by his arm. "Look, if you're good, maybe I'll buy you a candy bar at the check-out."

Lloyd brightens immediately at that. "Okay!" He says. "What's next? Do we need cereal? 'Cause the cereal's right here. Can we get Froot Loops?"

Kai rolls his eyes, but he can't help but grin at Lloyd's enthusiasm as he practically tears down the aisle, the sleeves of Jay's old hoodie (that's still way too large for him) flopping over his hands again as he does.

The grin slides off his face as Kai glances back down at the shopping list, highly conscious of the tiny numbers Nya's scrawled at the bottom of the page. Those are painfully legible. He drags a hand over his face. They're not scrapped for money, per say, but after everything - the loss of basically all their belongings on the Bounty to the Devourer, the cost of keeping up with rent - they really do need to be keeping an eye on things, financially. They aren't terrible, but it reminds Kai uncannily of the days he spent struggling to support himself and Nya on the blacksmith shop.

It also means he can't buy Lloyd anything he wants - not even cheap little bloody eyeballs.

Kai glances over the list again, chewing on the inside of his cheek. They can't not get ibuprofen, that's a big no-go. Basic medical supplies are a must, obviously, and he can't skimp on the milk or Zane'll kill him. They could maybe skip the anxiety meds this time, but then Kai would feel awful if anyone had trouble-

"What's wrong?" Lloyd says, craning his head over Kai's arm. "Do we not have enough money? Do you owe some to somebody? Are we in trouble with the mob?"

"Are we - what?" Kai blinks. "The mob - no, Lloyd, geez. How do you even know about that?"

"Gene had an uncle in it! He said they would go yank people off the street, then they would like, steal their kidneys an' stuff if they couldn't pay you back," Lloyd says, gleefully.

Kai stares at him, mentally despairing. He finally decides to let this particular one go. "No, Lloyd," he sighs, wearily. "We're not in trouble with the mob. We're just…a little tight on stuff, right now."

Kai winces. How is he supposed to explain their financial woes to a kid? "Sorry kiddo, we probably won't be able to get those snickers today."

"It's okay," Lloyd says, with surprising nonchalance. "I know we're not super rich or anything. Stuff cost a lot. Before I was with you guys, back when I was on my own, I would try to buy food and stuff, sometimes? But it cost so much. Who even has that much money, anyways?"

Kai winces even harder, feeling the same frustrating mix of pained anger he does whenever Lloyd brings up his childhood thus far.

"-anyways, the point is, I totally get why people become bank robbers, because imagine if you had that much money, you could buy, like, so much candy-!"

"And that's our cue to check out," Kai says, a hand on Lloyd's back as he ushers him past the employee eyeing them suspiciously. "Didn't I say we were trying not to turn you into a corrupt child criminal?" he hisses.

"It was just a joke! You're never fun, geez-"

They get through the check-out line mercifully quick, and Kai's total ends up being slightly under budget, so he caves and buys them a snickers bar to split. Lloyd is seemingly pacified, so Kai decides it's a good time to bring something back up.

"Anyways, back to the whole 'we're tyrants who won't let you celebrate Halloween' thing," Kai says, as they pile the now-bagged groceries back into the shopping cart. "Where'd you get that idea? We're obviously going to celebrate. You can even go trick-or-treating with the other kids in Ninjago City, if you want. Or we can hit up Jamanaki, or Cole's hometown, I guess."

Whatever place is safest at the moment, Kai decides, as they head out of the store.

Lloyd, to his surprise, doesn't exactly look thrilled with that idea. "I dunno," he says, dully. "I don't really wanna hang out with the other kids. Can we just watch scary movies at the apartment?"

"What's wrong with the other kids?" Kai says, frowning. Lloyd isn't usually shy - maybe a little quiet around new people, but he's definitely not one to shy away from any opportunity to get candy, regardless of who's around.

Lloyd shrugs, looking down as he toes a scuff on the linoleum floor. "There's nothing wrong with them," he mutters. "It's more kinda...me."

Kai blinks, coming to a halt. "What?"

Lloyd gives a jerky little shrug. He grins up at him, a toothy one that shows his slightly too-sharp teeth, his red eyes flashing. "'Cause I'm the spawn of evil, duh, they all fear me!"

He says it brightly, still grinning fiercely, but Kai catches the slight waver in his voice, the fake edge in his smile.

Oh. Kai's heart twists.

He opens his mouth to give a rebuttal, fully prepared to insist to Lloyd that nobody even notices those things - and stops. Kai hesitates, thinking back to their trip in the store so far. You'd think, living in a place where literal snake people ran around constantly, red eyes wouldn't draw much attention. But living in a place where Garmadon is relatively well-known…

There'd been that shopper passing by who had done a double-take at Lloyd, her eyes quickly skirting away from his. Kai had shot her a death glare, and Lloyd thankfully hadn't noticed, but…still.

Kai's jaw tightens, and he feels about ready to bare his own teeth.

"You just…you just gotta show 'em it's nothing," he opts instead, trying to sound encouraging. Cole is usually much better at this positivity stuff. Or Zane. Or Jay, really, just anyone other than Kai. "Just be yourself," he finally says. "Once they actually meet you, they'll like you, no sweat."

"Just be yourself? What kind of stupid advice is that?" Lloyd glares. "You didn't even like me when you met me."

"Wha- that's not true," Kai says, frowning. "I-"

"You guys hung me from a roof!"

Kai cringes. "Ah, yeah…um….look, in hindsight, that was super uncool-"

"And then you all hated me for like, a month, until you found out I was the Green Ninja-"

"Hey, woah, now that's not true," Kai says, grabbing Lloyd's shoulders firmly, forcing him to look at him. "We definitely liked you before then, and you know it. But c'mon, Lloyd - you acted like a total brat, you know that, right?"

Lloyd huffs, but he nods, looking sour. "Yeah, yeah," he mutters. His expression falls a bit. "But…you guys are different. No one else has ever liked me. All the kids at Darkley's hated my guts."

Kai is dying, just a bit, on the inside. Like the I-Need-To-Light-Someone-On-Fire-For-This kind of dying, the kind where he goes out and does something stupid-

"Except for maybe Brad," Lloyd mutters, hand on his chin. "I think he sorta liked me, a little bit…"

Kai finally cuts in, his voice only mildly venomous. "Well, the kids at Darkley's were all little assholes-"

"Nya says you're not supposed to use that word," Lloyd says, suddenly very serious. He'd taken his "language learned at Darkley's is not acceptable language if you want dessert tonight" lecture very seriously, it appears.

Kai huffs. "Okay, those little jerks - they don't know what they're talking about. They're a bunch of brainless rock heads."

Lloyd gives a slightly happier giggle at that. "Like Cole?"

Kai gives him a side eye. "Be nice."

"Cole is way cooler than anyone at Darkley's, anyways," Lloyd amends.

"How about this," Kai says. "We all go trick-or-treating together, so if anyone decides to mess with you, I light them on fire."

Lloyd lights up brighter than the flashing electronic pumpkins next to them, and Kai mentally congratulates himself.

"For real?" Lloyd says. "You'll dress up and everything?"

"Cross my heart," Kai draws an x across his chest. "Now hop on," he says, patting the shopping cart handle. "I'll run and push us across the parking lot."

Lloyd whoops, hopping up on the cart.

"Okay," he says, as Kai puts one foot up. "I lied. You're sometimes fun."

"Oh, just sometimes, huh," Kai grins.

"On weekends, and holidays, and-"

Kai never does learn when else he's fun, because Lloyd is too busy laughing as they careen down the parking lot, shopping cart rattling loudly in their wake.

******

Nya thinks them all trick-or-treating a great idea, and she claims that she can make fake blood all on her own - so by the time Zane agrees with her, nobody stands a snowball's chance in hell of saying no to that particular team-up of puppy eyes.

Cole tries arguing that they don't have costumes, until Jay wickedly reminds him that they've still got the pirate outfits from the whole thing with Captain Soto and his men - but by that point, Cole isn't resisting much anyways. Lloyd's excitement is infectious, and it's fun to celebrate holidays with a family this big.

It's something none of them are quite used to, but it's welcome nonetheless.

"We're only sticking to this neighborhood, okay?" Cole tells them, for the hundredth time. "It'll gonna be crowded enough that I doubt anyone will notice it's us, and they're running a haunted house in the middle, so-"

"A haunted house?" Lloyd says, looking up from where he's finishing off the blood splatters on his own costume. "Can I take back what I said about Ninjago City being lame? This is awesome."

Lloyd, economically, has decided to as a ghost, which only requires Nya's old bedsheet, eyeholes, and a good deal of homemade fake blood splattered over it.

"I've gotta be a scary ghost," Lloyd tells Jay, seriously. "The more blood, the better."

"You got it, kid," Jay says, who's getting pretty liberal with the blood himself.

"You're a pirate, Jay, not a zombie," Zane says, ducking the drops of red paint that go flying.

"A zombie pirate," Kai offers.

"A zirate," Jay grins. Cole groans.

Nya's the last to dress up, and she's ended up going as a vampire, to Lloyd's eternal delight.

"You look like me!" he says excitedly, as Nya gives him a sharp-toothed grin.

"Yup," she says, running her tongue over the plastic fangs and making a face. "They feel kinda weird, because they're just lame fakes, but they look super cool, right?"

Lloyd's own fangs (which is a generous term) are tiny in comparison, of course, so they really look absolutely nothing like each other, but the megawatt grin he's got on - Nya's playing the long game here, and Kai has to respect her for that.

This means he's gotta get those snickers bars with the little ghosts on them later, though.

******

Trick-or-treating ends up being a lot more fun than Kai had been expecting - then again, he's never really been himself that he can remember, so maybe it's a new experience for all of them.

Well, except Jay and Cole. They're both far too invested in making sure they hit every single house possible.

Kai grins as he watches them head back from their latest house - Lloyd makes the cutest little terror of a ghost he's ever seen, swamped in the sheet as he is. Albeit a very bloody ghost, fake blood dripped gruesomely all over him. But he seems happy enough, flapping his sheet-covered arms around at anyone who dares get near them.

Well, he had been. Lloyd had discovered, much to his dismay, that it's almost impossible to eat candy with a sheet draped over his face - though there were an amusing few minutes where he had tried vainly to shove several Starbursts through the eyeholes at once. He's finally given up and shoved the sheet back over his head, where it drapes over him like a very bloody cape as he surveys his bag of candy. He's beaten them all by a ridiculously large margin, but that's just because they're all suckers who are slipping half their own candy into his bag the entire night.

"Hey, you got any chocolate you wanna share?" Cole says, reaching his hand toward Lloyd's bag.

Lloyd opens his mouth and snaps his teeth together. "I'll bite you," he threatens. "Like a shark."

"Ooh, Lloyd the Fangfish," Cole pretends to shudder. "Watch out, he's got rabies."

"I do not," Lloyd huffs, but he grudgingly hands Cole one of his Kit-Kats.

"Don't eat too much in one go," Zane reminds him. "You don't want to make yourself sick."

"Aw, c'mon Zane, it's Halloween," Jay says, through a mouthful of his own candy. "Lighten up."

"Hey, Zane can't help being such a mom," Kai says, slinging his arm around him. Zane shrugs at him good-naturedly, not hard enough to actually shake him off. "One of us has to be."

Zane rolls his eyes long-sufferingly. The moon dips behind a cluster of clouds, darkening the streets a bit, and Kai's about to suggest they head home - when a voice echoes across the street.

"Lloyd - hey, Lloyd!"

Lloyd's head snaps up. "Brad?" he says, almost incredulously, as the boy runs up to them, tugging on the hood of his own costume.

Kai stiffens, and he's distinctly aware of Nya giving the kid the stink-eye where she stands off to the side. Sure, Lloyd kind-of made-up with his friends after they lured them all to Darkley's and tried to re-evil-brainwash him, but years of being demon brats don't just go away (look at Lloyd). That, and Lloyd's words from earlier are still pretty fresh in his mind.

Kai narrows his own eyes. Lloyd can handle himself against one little tyke, but just in case…Kai isn't too opposed to shoving some kids in a trash can tonight.

Lloyd and Brad have gone quiet, carefully eyeing each other. Kai holds his breath as they size each other up. Brad was the one Lloyd said might have liked him, right? Maybe this can work in his favor, then. If Lloyd can just be chill for five seconds, then maybe-

"Your fake blood is lame," Lloyd finally says. Nya smacks a hand against her head.

Apparently, it's the right thing to say when you're an ex-evil hellion of a kid, though, because Brad immediately relaxes, jutting his lip out in a half-pouting scowl.

"Is not. Where'd you get yours, anyways?" He gives the ninja a wide-eyed glance. "Did you get it from somebody they killed?" he whispers.

Zane sputters as Cole claps a hand over his mouth, holding back snickers. Lloyd rolls his eyes.

"Nah, they'd never actually kill somebody. They're good guys, remember? Nya - that's Nya, by the way! - she made it."

"Cool," Brad says, looking a little less nervous. "Hey, Gene's over at the playground - wanna help scare him? We still owe him for the fake spider thing, right?"

"Oh - uh, yeah, obviously," Lloyd says, and Kai almost snorts at the gleam in his eye. Gee, you spend all this time trying to reform a kid.

The two fall into easy conversation - mostly plotting an unfortunate Gene's demise - as if they'd never been strained at all, and Kai watches as Lloyd runs off with him to the other kids, feeling a little abandoned and a lot protective.

"Just one little hair," he says to Nya. "I'll just singe one off."

"Kai, he's his friend, look," Nya sighs, gesturing at Lloyd and Brad where they're now tearing around the playground with several other kids (who are, no doubt, equal hellions). "They're just having fun."

"Yeah, well, I don't trust 'em."

"Well, Lloyd can always blast them across town with an energy burst, if they give him any trouble," Jay says, tossing a chocolate bar at Cole.

Zane frowns at him. "That's…not exactly the use of power we should be teaching him."

"What, you don't want Lloyd to protect himself from bullies?"

Zane considers the point. "Perhaps, if the situation called for it…"

"Great!" Jay stands up, linking his arm with Zane. "Then who's up for the haunted house with me?"

Cole takes a step back. "Nuh-uh, you know how I am with creepy houses. I don't do that kind of stuff-"

"You do with us!" Nya says cheerfully, grabbing one arm while Kai wrestles the other. Cole sputters indignantly as they drag him along. "Come on, let's see if Lloyd and his little demon gang wanna join."

******

"Welp!" Jay throws the door open with unnecessary dramatics as they pile back into the apartment. "We're banned for life. I hope you guys are happy."

"Hey, I wasn't the one who drop-kicked the chainsaw actor," Kai mutters.

Cole flushes. "I'm a ninja, I can't help it - it was reflex!""

"Was the high-pitched screaming reflex?" Jay says. Cole elbows him in the gut, and Jay snatches the candy bar from his hand in retaliation. Cole gives an indignant yelp.

"Hey! That was my last chocolate bar!"

Nya roll her eyes as she squeezes past Jay, who's loudly chewing Cole's candy bar in his face. Lloyd totters in behind her, half-buried in the pile of candy he's amassed in his bag. He's giggling manically, and the look in his eyes is genuinely more terrifying than anything Kai's ever seen.

"Pace yourself on that candy, alright?" Kai says, eyeing him. "I don't wanna wake up to you puking your guts out tonight."

"Nuh-uh," Lloyd says, through a mouthful of taffy. "I don' ge' sick from candy. S'impossible."

"That's what you said the last time," Cole says, snatching the bag from Lloyd's hand and ignoring his cry of displeasure. "That's enough for tonight. You can eat yourself sick again in the morning."

Nya strides by them, falling onto the couch next to Kai with a a thwump. Kai watches in amusement as she rubs a hand across her eye, smearing mascara and eyeliner across her cheek in a raccoon-like smudge. Nya notices his stare, glancing at her hand and huffing.

"Remind me not to wear costume makeup again," she mutters, as Kai snorts. "At least I didn't ruin it for the picture."

She digs into her bag, pulling out a slightly-rumpled but still glossy photograph.

"Not that it matters," Nya continues. "This is the worst picture of us I've ever seen." She makes a face, staring at the picture the workers at the haunted house had snapped of them before they went in.

Kai shifts on the couch so he's looking over Nya's shoulder, squinting at the photo. "Is that supposed to be Zane?" he says, pointing at the blurry figure on the right.

"May…be?" Nya says. "At least you turned out alright."

Kai grins at where he's taking up half the picture, Lloyd wrapped in a chokehold around his neck that could be considered a hug if generous, both of them grinning wildly.

"Someone's gotta bring the beautiful," Kai says. He looks up to where Lloyd is being accosted by Cole, having somehow gotten his hands on yet another chocolate bar.

"Lloyd, I said that's enough. Lloyd, don't - no! Stop!"

Lloyd's hand stills, the chocolate bar hovering inches from his mouth.

"Put it down," Cole hisses. The chocolate bar moves half an inch closer. "Lloyd! No!"

Lloyd shoves the chocolate in his mouth before Cole can blink. "Lloyd!"

Lloyd springs from the chair, cackling wildly as he runs. Cole tears after him, seething. "I'll use you as a toothbrush for the Ultradragon, you pint-sized punk-"

"I'm surprised Sensei Wu hasn't come in and killed us yet," Jay says, flopping down on the rug below Kai and Nya, fumbling with the remote.

"He went out for the evening," Zane says. "Which means you can scream as loudly as you want over the movie."

Jay chucks a wrapper at Zane's head. He snatches it easily, tossing it back at Jay. Their worn TV finally flickers to life just as Cole and Lloyd finally wind down, Lloyd looking a lot less gleeful with his decision.

"O-oh, too much candy," Lloyd moans, clambering onto the couch next to Kai.

"You puke on me, I'm tossing you off the roof," Kai says, but he wraps an arm around him nonetheless, pulling Lloyd against his side.

"No you won't," Lloyd yawns, eyelids already fluttering as the movie starts. "You'd miss me too much. Wouldn't ever have any fun without me."

"Oh, I wouldn't?"

"Nope. I gotta…keep you from getting boring."

"No worries on that one," Kai says, grinning. He bites back his own yawn, settling further into the couch as Lloyd nods off, curling up against his side. "No worries at all."

Lloyd is soundly asleep against his side in seconds, snoring softly. Kai's getting all sorts of looks from Jay and Cole, but he masterfully ignores them - for now. Nya's taken to nodding off on his other side, so he's kinda sibling-sandwiched at the moment. Upsetting them isn't worth putting Jay in a headlock tonight.

"Here," Nya suddenly whispers over the movie, waving the picture up at him from where she's using his shoulder as a pillow. "Wanna put it in your modeling portfolio?"

Kai maturely sticks his tongue out at her, but he still snatches the picture. "Nah, but I'll keep it as a reminder of what massive dorks you all are."

They settle back to watching the movie, and he glances at the picture again. It's a pretty cute one - not that he's gonna admit that. It's a keeper, at least. They really don't have a lot of pictures of their team, and hardly any at all with Lloyd and his disaster-haired self.

Ah well. He can take more later. They've got plenty of time.

#my fic #ninjago #taking a break from your regularly scheduled angst to bring you gross fluff #casually hops on the lloyd-with-fangs train

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thenamesblake22-blog · 5 years

Text

Happy Pride Month!

I know, as of posting this, it’s June 2nd, but it’s currently 2:15am so it still feels like June 1st for me. But hey! Happy pride month guys! 🏳️‍🌈

I guess talking about how I figured out I no longer wanted to be female would be fitting.

As a kid, I never got along too well with the other girls, I was always the one who played by myself or with some mutual guy friends on the play structure. I've never had any good experiences being friends with girls in elementary school. I once got made fun of in kindergarten by a couple girls because my mom hadn't yet explained to me why I don't have a dad, so I got made fun of for that. It hurt me on the inside, but on the outside I justed laughed it off. Funny how something I'm good at started at a young age. Hiding my true emotions and feelings. Because I had no girls to hangout with, and I felt like I would get made fun of for hanging out with guys or I felt like the guys wouldn't talk to me, I often played by myself or sat by myself. Tho I do have two really good friends from my childhood, I just don't remember ever hanging out with them back then.

When middle school hit, I finally started hanging out with my childhood friends and began to not care what anyone thought of me. And as the years went on, I began to make more guy friends then girl friends. But then I met this one girl in 8th grade. It's all fun and games until you trust someone too much.

So middle school years where split into trimesters. It was probably around halfway through 2nd trimester, that I met this girl. We both had science together and we sat at the same table. I thought she was a super cool and sweet girl. At first.

We had been friends for a few weeks, when she asked for my email so we could text each other. I'm only 16, so this wasn't that long ago at all, meaning we could've messaged over Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook messenger, but she wanted to do it over gmail. I didn't think anything of it, I didn't think it was weird, so I didn't care. (This whole Gmail thing doesn't even matter but y'know, thought I'd put some tension of sorts in there, lol.)

So we would talk over Gmail, and I would have fun talking to her, just talking about stuff we both enjoyed. This next part should've been a red flag for me in when it got suspecious, but I was just too trusting and oblivious. She started saying how she was feeling depressed and almost suicidal at times, and ofc with the bond we had made over the past month I'm guessing, I didn't want her to try anything. I had never had to deal with this sort of stuff, so I didn't know what to do. But I should've just forced answers out of her when she would always say,"Don't leave me! Are you there? Text me back. Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Please come back." Blah blah blah. Especially when she acted absolutely perfectly fine at school. Long story short, I get grounded becuase of her, becuase her neighbors appearantly just had there garage open with a load of guns in it, which idk why the hell I believed that... No one is stupid enough to leave they're garage door open and their garage be filled with guns. God, I was such a stupid kid. When I finally get my phone back from being grounded, I later learn that this bitch, was trying to get with my boyfriend at the time by sending him nudes, then she tried to break up my best friend and his girl friend to get with him, and made up rumours and lies about my best friends gf at the time, or something, idek at this point. I forgot to mention, she was one clingy ass bitch. But after her, and that whole incedent, I have never been more untrusting around people I've just met. she became the main reason why I hate being friends with girls.

Now it's time for the good 'ol sexual awakening shiz. So pretty much all my life, I've always leaned towards more masculine things, no matter what it was, and never enjoyed any feminine things. By freshman year of high school, I started getting into fandoms and shipping popular gay ships. Like Lams from the musical Alexander Hamilton.

I finally was able to cut my hair by the end of 8th grade, get a little bit of a buzz on the sides. It was cool. I liked it. Now probably the very beginning of second semester freshman year, I met this guy named Alex through a girl I met in choir. (Which btw choir made me wanna yeet myself because I was quite literally stuck in a room full of girls five days a week, for 50 minutes, in the morning, not fun.) Alex and I were just good friends who hung outside the choir room before that period started. Alex and I didn't talk too much over the summer, but this is when I started watching Lego Ninjago. I started shipping Zane, master of ice, white ninja, with Cole, master of earth, black ninja. When I started shipping gay characters I guess you could say was when I was an ally. I was like this until about the beginning of 2019. I think that's when I started questioning,"do I actually want to be a guy?" That guy Alex, was my best friend at this point, I helped him push through a couple of really dark times for him. I'm not gonna lie that I was absolutely scared out of my mind that he was going to severely hurt himself. I had built up too much love for that guy to lose him then. As I mentioned earlier I used to have a bf in middle school that lasted till January of this year. I had broken up with him because I felt like we were going nowhere, we had never done anything outside of school, we rarely hung out, and it just felt like we were good friends. The day right after I broke up with him, we had no school that Monday, so Alex and I met at the mall to make me feel better about breaking up with my ex. Alex and I had so many classes together 1st semester, that I would always hangout with him and choose to hangout with him for anything in our classes. Alex also showed me a gay ship called Klance, I had no idea what it was, but I loved it when I looked it up. He told me it was from the show Voltron. I only knew of the 80s Voltron at the time, I actually didn't know that the ship he showed me was actually from the remake. So I started watching Voltron. Just over about 3 weeks after Alex and I went to the mall after my breakup, on Valentine's day, Alex asked me out. After everything we had been through, I was so happy to say yes. Why am I talking so much about Alex? It's more than just everything I helped him through and all the good times we had, I think he is the reason why I'm trans and obvi gay. He is the first guy I have ever been able to tell all of my problems to, the first guy that never makes fun of me for my interests, and the first guy I feel comfortable with telling him I think I wanna be trans and being totally supported by him. He supports me in everything I do and vise versa. So I'm trans and gay, and my bf, Alex is bi.

#transboy #transgender #bisexual #gay #depressed #storytime #happypridemonth #youareloved

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